Queuing overnight to purchase house

S

Sunshine26

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See in Irish Independent today about people queuing overnight for houses in Portmarnock and also read about people also queuing in Lucan too. Is this becoming the norm again for buying new houses? We are hoping to buy in next phase of a new development soon, does anyone know how do estate agents organise these queues, do they hand out tickets etc? There is such demand out there and we are 2nd time buyers, won't even get advantage of grant!
 
Seems to be norm now. Friends of mine were queuing in Stepaside for new builds anyway. Doesnt seem to me that the EA organises them, seems to be the buyers themselves. Its very depressing hearing these stories of queues.
 
It appears you register your interest online. You then get an email the day before the launch giving you timing and price details and in one development in Wicklow people started queuing within an hour of getting the email. So that meant queuing overnight. You need to be on the ball at the moment especially if you have your eye on a specific house in the development.
Good luck.
 
It seems to me that the recently introduced FTB tax rebate may already be starting to distort the market.

Overnight queues for new houses while there was a nationwide drop of 0.4% in property prices in December (per the CSO). I guess time will tell.
 
It seems a bit crazy but I suppose you have to be proactive. Queuing is one of my pet hates. I'd have a strong preference for a second-hand house in a settled estate with no management company and which has been taken over by the council.
 
These "queues" smell of PR stunt. Like the 7am queues to vote during the last referendum. Most people don't even notice fake news any more.
 
T McGibney said:
These "queues" smell of PR stunt. Like the 7am queues to vote during the last referendum. Most people don't even notice fake news any more.
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There were defintely ques outside the Portmarnock developement. I drove by on Saturday morning and was surprised to see a large line of cars queing up to go and look at the houses.
 
With such a shortage of supply especially in the Dublin area, is anyone really surprised by the appearance of queues? Price rises are irrelevant
 
adox said:
There were defintely ques outside the Portmarnock developement. I drove by on Saturday morning and was surprised to see a large line of cars queing up to go and look at the houses.
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My point isn't so much that they exist, but that estate agents and sellers contrive to manufacture them. It should be possible to arrange a "first come first served" system without requiring people to queue overnight. Effectively, they're abusing their own customers.
 
It must be clear to everyone, that Estate Agents/Auctioneers/Sellers are the real villains in this mess we call a property market. These people inflate every house price, always pushing higher. They jack up rents to levels that cannot be justified. The guiding force is always to increase their own business, and always to maximize their own profits. They use creative, and misleading marketing and sharp questionable advertising, and they promote a sense of urgency and scarcity that fuels the upward demand spiral. Supply and Demand economics in the Irish property industry is a fairy tale. Supply is deliberately, and institutionally manipulated and restricted, demand is artificially inflated, and price is pushed ever higher. Always too few properties, always higher prices, always more profit for the select few. Developers, Landlords, Investment Funds, Banks, Auctioneers, and those that facilitate them, always make gains, always benefit. The worker, homeowner, house buyer, renter, student, ordinary Joe Soap gets taken to the cleaners every time.
 
comer911 said:
It must be clear to everyone, that Estate Agents/Auctioneers/Sellers are the real villains in this mess we call a property market. These people inflate every house price, always pushing higher. They jack up rents to levels that cannot be justified. The guiding force is always to increase their own business, and always to maximize their own profits. They use creative, and misleading marketing and sharp questionable advertising, and they promote a sense of urgency and scarcity that fuels the upward demand spiral. Supply and Demand economics in the Irish property industry is a fairy tale. Supply is deliberately, and institutionally manipulated and restricted, demand is artificially inflated, and price is pushed ever higher. Always too few properties, always higher prices, always more profit for the select few. Developers, Landlords, Investment Funds, Banks, Auctioneers, and those that facilitate them, always make gains, always benefit. The worker, homeowner, house buyer, renter, student, ordinary Joe Soap gets taken to the cleaners every time.
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This is nonsense, and it is important to challenge nonsense like this, things are difficult enough for many people without this kind of mindless blame spraying.

Creative marketing there certainly is but that is reasonable business practice. Misleading marketing and sharp questionable advertising I am sure also exists, I highly doubt it has much effect on the market.

Rents are not jacked up to levels that cannot be justified, they are "jacked up" to use your term, to levels the market will bear. Not so long ago they were falling to market levels. The reason they are high now is scarcity of supply, and high demand.

Supply of rental accommodation is low in part because of the incompetent regulation of the market by government. See many threads on the (P)RTB. Many people are afraid to rent out property.

Supply of new housing is low because the cost of building is high, much of it due to incompetent government regulation again. VAT, development levies, cumbersome planning, the list goes on.

Turnover of housing, older people down sizing, is restricted because of the stamp duty regime.

Demand (not in the strict economic sense) is high because of growing employment and rising wages.

Purchasing is restricted because of lack of availability of finance. Bank lending to developers is scarce, bank lending to purchasers restricted.

You are entitled to be angry about the state of the housing market, you do nobody any service with unthought out rants about it.
 
More queuing

http://www.independent.ie/business/...night-to-get-a-foot-in-the-door-35455683.html
House hunters lined up yesterday in Baldoyle to view new accommodation at the Silverbanks development...
...The queue started forming in the early hours of yesterday morning as people desperately trying to get on the property ladder pulled out all the stops...
...A spokesperson for estate agent Savills told the Herald that the properties at the development were "on a first come, first served basis".
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Always useful to have the Indo on hand with a photographer. Great publicity
 
very interested in this thread. It this a direct result of the FTB grant? FTB's will only be interested in new builds going forward? Where does this leave the market for second hand homes then?
 
laura28 said:
very interested in this thread. It this a direct result of the FTB grant? FTB's will only be interested in new builds going forward? Where does this leave the market for second hand homes then?
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The Help to Buy Scheme has to be making a difference as you can get a sizeable refund for going for a new build.

The second hand market is still very competitive. New builds are still quite limited and many people would like to buy in a certain area where there is no new builds. The housing market on the whole is absolute madness. I built during the Celtic Tiger which was a mad time. There were houses to buy at that time. Now there is a limited supply and high prices again. At least the banks are restricted on their lending practices this time to prevent people borrowing way over what they can afford.

Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
Thanks Steven. I guess where I am worried is we bought our 2 bed apartment off plans in 2005. Have weathered the negative equity storm, 2 kids now and have a tracker and are hoping to move this year......I feel like we are back in 2005 and any purchase we make now will be another very expensive, unsuitable mistake...
 
I feel the same way. We bought in 2007 - on a tracker mortgage. We have saved hard and hoping to buy in the next few years.

I feel by the time we buy we will be buying at peak prices again. I made a bad financial mistake once. I'm now older and wiser and can't afford to make the same mistake twice. But then if we leave it we could be priced out of market. If we are priced out of market does that mean history will repeat itself re prices. Very confused.
 
Unfortunately Laura, I think there may be further trouble ahead. We don't speculate on house prices here, but base rates can only go one way from here.

However if you can afford the repayments, even planning for a rate rise, and you are happy to live in the new place for a long time, you wont go too far wrong.

After all if the property suits you and you can afford the mortgage, thats all that matters.
 
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